That time of year

when people are leaving.  Thankful that it's not our turn!  And that here in Zimbabwe we've made a lot of friends who aren't on the US embassy cycle (which here is only 2 years for State Department, though it's 4 for US-AID).  Really we only know one family with our embassy that is leaving (in part because we really don't know many embassy families here!).  But we have met a lot of other international workers as well as teachers at HIS, and they too are on cycles, so we begin the goodbyes.

But our saddest goodbye was our missionary friends who were so good to us when we first moved here and who spent Thanksgiving Day with us last year.  They were not granted renewals of their work permits and so had to leave the country quite suddenly last week.  We will miss them and hope they can return!

Amazing trees

One Tuesday morning a few weeks ago I noticed what looked to be cherry trees in bloom all over the place.  It turns out they are!  Kind of strange since it is the beginning of winter here.  Can someone explain that to me?  They weren't the same variety of trees as DC, but they were pretty spectacular:

Right about the same time the poinsettia trees also started blooming and they are just amazing.  Do these things grow in the US??  Florida maybe...

My photos don't really do them justice - I just took these at a friend's house when we were there for a party.  When I am driving around I marvel at the color that I see all over the place.  Too bad there aren't any in our yard!!

Market

Mbere is the name of the area where the real market is here in Harare.  I've only been twice - it's a bit far and a lot bigger than going to the little farmer's market in Asuncion (which I did almost every week).  The first time I went was on a tour that the international school's moms organized for newcomers and I wasn't really prepared to buy a lot.  Happily, my friend Helen offered to take me again a few weeks ago and it was great fun!  It was especially nice to go with Helen because she is African by birth and has a better feel for how to manage an African market than I do.

Her maid, Susan joined us and helped us haul some things back to the car - African style:

(that is my "pocket" of butternut squash on her head)

Helen bought some peanuts and she brought me some which she had cooked, Southern Style (or African Style) - boiled! They were good!